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Carthusian Choir Stalls and the Misericord in Italy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 July 2012

Joanne Allen
Joanne Allen*
Affiliation:
Joanne Allen, 21 Boley Close, Lichfield WS14 9AR, UK. Email: joanne@postman.org.uk
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Abstract

The majority of choir stalls in Italy lack misericords. Their unusual presence in Piedmont and the Valle d'Aosta most probably reflects their proximity to, and the influence of, northern Europe. This paper reveals that the rare instances of misericords elsewhere in Italy are connected to the Carthusian order. Rather than performing an artistic role, their presence is derived from the specific rubrics of Carthusian liturgy, which legislated in detail on the correct use of misericords. The Cistercians also regulated their use, but a similar correlation cannot be assessed because of the lack of surviving furniture. The Carthusian connection, meanwhile, suggests a purely liturgical function for the carved rests, expanding the study of misericords beyond stylistic and iconographic analyses.

Résumé

En Italie, la majorité des stalles de chœur n'ont pas de miséricorde. Leur présence inhabituelle dans le Piémont et la Vallée d'Aoste reflète probablement la proximité, et l'influence, de l'Europe du Nord. Ce document révèle que les rares exemples de miséricordes présents ailleurs qu'en Italie sont reliés à l'ordre des chartreux. Plutôt que de jouer un rôle artistique, leur présence provient de rubriques spécifiques de la liturgie cartusienne, qui a statué en détail sur l'utilisation correcte des miséricordes. Les Cisterciens ont également réglementé leur utilisation, mais une corrélation similaire ne peut pas être évaluée en raison du manque de mobilier ayant survécu. Par ailleurs, la relation cartusienne suggère une fonction purement liturgique pour les restes sculptés, étendant l’étude des miséricordes au-delà des analyses stylistiques et iconographiques.

Zusammenfassung

Der Großteil der italienischen Chorgestühle verfügt über keine Miserikordien. Ihr ungewöhnliches Vorhandensein in Piemont und im Aostatal ist wahrscheinlich der Nähe zu und dem Einfluss aus Nordeuropa zuzuschreiben. In diesem Referat wird aufgezeigt, dass die seltenen Fälle von Miserikordien anderswo in Italien mit dem Kartäuserorden verbunden sind. Sie erfüllten dort keine künstlerische Rolle, sondern entsprachen den ganz spezifischen Vorgaben der Kartäuserliturgie, wonach die korrekte Nutzung der Miserikordien in allen Einzelheiten festgelegt ist. Auch die Zisterzienser regelten ihre Verwendung, wobei sich eine ähnliche Zuordnung jedoch nicht ermessen lässt, da es an erhaltenem Mobiliar mangelt. Indessen lässt die Verbindung zu den Kartäusern auf eine rein liturgische Funktion für die geschnitzten Lehnen schließen, womit das Studium der Miserikordien über stilistische und ikonografische Analysen hinaus erweitert wird.

Information

Type
Research papers
Information
The Antiquaries Journal , Volume 92 , September 2012 , pp. 307 - 330
Copyright
Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 2012

Misericords, the projecting brackets on the undersides of the swing seats of choir stalls, display some of the most inventive, provocative and amusing images in medieval art. Their primary function was to allow occupants to rest during long services while giving the impression that they were standing, the term ‘misericord’ deriving from the Latin for ‘mercy’ or ‘pity’.Footnote 1 The carved supports are ubiquitous across Europe, featuring on medieval stalls in England,Footnote 2 France,Footnote 3 Belgium and The Netherlands,Footnote 4 Germany,Footnote 5 Switzerland,Footnote 6 and Spain and Portugal.Footnote 7 Misericords often depicted genre scenes or folklore – images that Grössinger argued counterbalanced the solemnity of religious services.Footnote 8 Religious iconography was less commonly depicted, perhaps because to cover or turn one's back on such subjects was considered profane. By contrast, Camille has suggested that the action of obscuring secular subject-matter constituted ‘the obliteration of one social group by another’.Footnote 9

The ever-expanding literature on European misericords situates their iconographic schemes in the context of contemporary literature, folklore and social convention.Footnote 10 But a more basic problem than one of interpretation faces the study of misericords: their almost complete absence in Italy. Few art historians have attempted to explain this curiosity, reflecting the lack of scholarly interest on Italian choir stalls in general.Footnote 11 In their survey of European misericords, Dorothy and Henry Kraus offered the following possible reasons for their absence in Italy: ‘shortage of wood, lack of early experience in wood-carving, in which northern countries had a strong tradition, late retention of stone seats because of the more clement weather’.Footnote 12 These cannot fully explain the phenomenon. A general wood shortage, even if true, is unlikely to have affected the production of such small supports, and the supposed lack of a strong history of woodcarving did not hinder the development of intricately carved stall-backs or stall-dividers in Italy. Moreover, although most surviving Italian stalls date from after 1400, documentary evidence shows that wooden stalls were constructed in earlier times.Footnote 13 Indeed, the absence of misericords is just one feature amongst many that makes Italian stalls stylistically different from those produced elsewhere in Europe. Medieval stalls in Italy were generally less complex than the micro-architectural fantasies seen in northern Europe, and several combined wood and stone elements,Footnote 14 while the golden age of choir furniture in fifteenth-century Italy was marked by a distinctive episode in the history of church furniture dominated by the production of intarsia panels depicting perspectival scenes.

The general absence of misericords on Italian choir stalls invites several broader questions. Should misericords be perceived as a regional stylistic motif? Were they considered desirable aids to liturgical performance or not, and how were they used in religious ritual? Crucially, were Italian artists and patrons aware of the existence of misericords and did they consciously renounce their use?

Misericords In North-West Italy From The Early Fourteenth To The Seventeenth Centuries

Misericords can be found on stalls from various periods in the regions of Lombardy, Piedmont and the Valle d'Aosta in north-west Italy. They are, however, generally less sophisticated than many north European examples and tend not to feature the same genre or literary themes. Although treated in general overviews of medieval art, the presence of misericords in this region has not been fully recognized or explained.Footnote 15

Stalls in the cathedral of San Giusto at Susa, near Turin, have simple misericords portraying bearded men and birds dated to 1320–30.Footnote 16 Misericords can also be seen in the stalls of the abbey church at Novalesa, dated to 1430–50;Footnote 17 these are very basic in design, constructed as a T-shape with the support forming a projecting half-moon. In Aosta Cathedral, the stalls were carved in 1469 by the Savoyard workers Jean de Chetro and Jean Vion, whose self-portraits appear on two of the stall-ends; these misericords depict monstrous leering faces and contorted bestial figures.Footnote 18 In the Collegiata di Sant'Orso, in Aosta, carved misericords dated 1487 depict simple subjects in an almost graphic styleFootnote 19 and show close affinities with misericords in the cathedral of Saint-Jean-de-Murienne, sculpted by Pierre Mochet in 1498.Footnote 20 The more detailed carvings in the abbey church at Staffarda, dated to the 1520s, show male heads and folklore figures, including a dog in male clothing and a male figure with oversized ears.Footnote 21

Further east, in Lombardy, misericords are present in a small group of choirs that are late in date. Sixteenth-century examples appear on the stalls of Santa Maria della Passione in Milan (fig 1). These highly simplistic supports consist of two pieces of shaped wood joined to form a T-shape, clearly of utilitarian rather than aesthetic intention. Similar ex situ stalls, displaying identical distinctive mother-of-pearl perspectival ornament on the stall-backs, also have misericords, suggesting that they formed part of the workshop repertoire.Footnote 22 In the Abbazia di Chiaravalle Milanese, stalls constructed by Carlo Garavaglia in the 1640s feature misericords carved with heads, foliage and scrolls.Footnote 23

Fig 1

Santa Maria della Passione, Milan: sixteenth-century choir stalls. Photograph: author

The misericords discussed thus far appear in churches unrelated by religious order or type, but situated within the same geographical sphere. Woodworkers in this region were strongly influenced by French, Swiss and German sources. In some cases, close parallels can be made with furniture north of the Alps, suggesting a degree of direct contact between artists or patrons. For example, carvings in the Collegiata di Sant'Orso compare closely with the dorsal figures and busts of the choir at the abbey of Weingarten (1477–8) and St Peter's Church in Constance (1500–13), both traditionally attributed to Heinrich Iselin.Footnote 24 Even when stalls lacked misericords, French influence on woodworkers in Lombardy was particularly strong. Flamboyant blind tracery stall-backs at San Lanfranco, in Pavia, adopt a French woodworking motif, seen for example in a wooden chapel screen in Laon Cathedral, also dated to the last quarter of the fifteenth century.Footnote 25 In other cases, documentary and visual evidence indicates that northern European woodworkers assisted in the making of choirs in north-west Italy. Stalls from Asti Cathedral were signed by the Italian woodworker Baldino da Surso, but an anonymous Swiss or German artist carved some of the stall-backs, probably those situated at the periphery of the ensemble.Footnote 26

The close contact between woodworkers in north-west Italy and their northern European counterparts probably facilitated the adoption of misericords by some churches in this region, while the political history of the area provides a practical context for the transmission of artistic ideas and techniques. Created as an independent duchy in 1416, Savoy embraced Piedmont and the Valle d'Aosta, together with Maurienne, in present-day France,Footnote 27 and the Savoy heraldic arms feature on the choir stalls in the cathedral and collegiata at Aosta.Footnote 28 French political interest in Lombardy contributed to an enduring artistic exchange between the two regions,Footnote 29 so it is not surprising that the north-west area contains the highest concentration of misericords in Italy, even if Italian influence is evident in the lack of decoration in many of the surviving examples.

Carthusian Choir Stalls

Outside this particular geographical zone, the one exception to the general lack of misericords in Italy occurs in the choirs of the Carthusian monastic order, where misericords can be found across Italy – from Piedmont to Calabria – dating from the fourteenth to the twentieth centuries. This peculiarity has only rarely been noted in the past,Footnote 30 and a full survey of Italian Carthusian churches is problematical, as many are now unused or have been converted to other uses and deprived of their original furniture.Footnote 31 Nevertheless, this hitherto unrecognized correlation reveals that – contrary to general assumptions – artists and patrons in medieval Italy were aware of the existence and function of misericords.

A brief survey of extant misericords in Carthusian churches will illustrate the extent of the phenomenon. Perhaps the earliest example is provided by the fourteenth-century choir in the Certosa di Banda, near Villar Focchiardo, in Piedmont, which displays misericords in the shape of half-moons.Footnote 32 As we have seen, several choirs in this region have misericords, so their presence in the Carthusian church here could form part of this geographical pattern. Further south, however, the choir of the Certosa del Galluzzo in Florence displays carved Gothic cusped arches on the stall-backs, a simple intarsia cornice and plainly carved semicircular misericords (fig 2).Footnote 33 Scantamburlo suggested that the choir could have been constructed in the 1460s by Jacopo di Marco da Villa Basilica, who was also commissioned to complete the choir in the nearby Certosa di Calci, near Pisa.Footnote 34 In the 1462 contract for the Pisan stalls, Jacopo was obliged to create a choir ‘beautiful and good like that of the monastery of Florence’, although the misericords themselves were not mentioned.Footnote 35 The extant Pisan choir is indeed an accurate replication of the Florentine version, displaying similar Gothic stall-backs and simply carved misericords (fig 3).Footnote 36 If these two choirs were indeed constructed by the same workshop, the possibility remains that the misericords formed part of the workshop repertoire, although none of the other choirs attributed to Jacopo survive to enable a comparison.Footnote 37

Fig 2

Certosa del Galluzzo, Florence: mid-fifteenth-century choir stalls. Photograph: author

Fig 3

Certosa di Calci, Pisa: choir stalls of c 1462. Photograph: author

The fifteenth-century stalls in the Certosa del Galluzzo were removed to the smaller church of Santa Maria, also in the monastery, at an undocumented date before the late sixteenth century. New monks’ stalls for the main church were begun in 1570 by Simone di Domenico Colombini, but were later worked on by the Baglioni and Atticciati workshops (fig 4).Footnote 38 These inlaid and carved stalls also feature elaborately carved misericords depicting inventive mask motifs, probably carved by the Baglioni workshop.Footnote 39

Fig 4

Certosa del Galluzzo, Florence: choir stalls dating between 1570 and 1590. Photograph: author

The Certosa di Pavia, constructed from 1487 (fig 5),Footnote 40 has one of the most celebrated intarsia choirs in Italy, with stall-backs depicting highly detailed portraits of saints and prophets. Beneath the swing seats, misericords project to form triangular shapes carved in the form of putti heads. Their placement at diverse heights on the stalls is an uncommon feature that could reflect the woodworkers’ inexperience in constructing such devices.Footnote 41 The stalls were built by a large team of woodworkers comprising Bartolomeo de Poli da Modena, Pantaleone de Marchi da Cremona, Giacomo dei Crocefissi and Cristoforo de Rocchi da Pavia.Footnote 42 Stalls completed by these craftsmen in other religious contexts do not have misericords, further indicating their uniqueness to the Carthusian order. In San Nicola in Rodengo, near Brescia, stalls signed by Cristoforo de Rocchi lack misericords, as do the stalls in San Petronio in Bologna by the De Marchi workshop, possibly worked on by a young Pantaleone.Footnote 43

Fig 5

Certosa di Pavia: choir stalls dating from 1487. Photograph: author

Misericords appear on extant late fifteenth-century stalls in the Certosa di Bologna, now situated in the chapel of San Giuseppe to the north of the apse (fig 6). Originally the monks’ choir of the church, the majority of the stalls were destroyed by fire in 1527.Footnote 44 These stalls are particularly plain, the only decoration consisting of simple foliate designs confined to the volutes on the stall-dividers.Footnote 45 Two sets of choir stalls in the Certosa di Padula, near Potenza, in Campania, exhibit misericords under their swing seats.Footnote 46 Signed by Giovanni Gallo in 1507, the stall-backs of the choir used by the conversi (lay brothers) depict saints and evangelists beneath cusped semicircular blind arches (fig 7), while the monks’ choir (possibly by the same artist) features intarsia scenes from the New Testament.Footnote 47 Gallo is not documented as having constructed any other surviving church furniture, so comparisons cannot be made with his non-Carthusian choirs. Featuring comparable intarsia perspective scenes of landscapes and still lifes, stalls that now form the conversi choir at the Certosa di San Martino, in Naples, were constructed by Francesco d'Arezzo and Maestro Prospero between 1510 and 1524 and also exhibit misericords (fig 8).Footnote 48 In the Certosa di Trisulti, in Lazio, choir stalls were carved by Maestro Jacobo – a French woodworker living in Rome – between 1539 and 1547.Footnote 49 In addition to the presence of small, plain misericords, the stalls are distinguished by carvings of animals and humans on the arm rests and by a series of attached lecterns.

Fig 6

Certosa di Bologna: late fifteenth-century choir stalls in the chapel of San Giuseppe. Photograph: author

Fig 7

Certosa di Padula: choir stalls of c 1507. Photograph: Conway Library, The Courtauld Institute of Art, London

Fig 8

Certosa di San Martino, Naples: choir stalls dating between 1510 and 1524. Photograph: author

Later Carthusian choirs also display misericords, highlighting the persistence of the phenomenon. In the Certosa di San Martino in Naples, richly carved walnut choir stalls, complete with misericords, were constructed from 1629 by Orazio de Orio and Giovanni Mazzuoli to replace the sixteenth-century stalls that now form the conversi choir (fig 9).Footnote 50 Simply carved late nineteenth-century stalls of the oldest Carthusian monastery in Italy, at Serra San Bruno, in Calabria, have misericords,Footnote 51 as do the late nineteenth- or early twentieth-century stalls in the choir of the Certosa di Vedana, near Belluno, where the design is of the utmost elegance, each stall being separated by Corinthian pilasters and carved volutes, the whole surmounted by carved cornices.Footnote 52 Even at such a late date as this, it seems that misericords were considered a vital element of Carthusian choir seating.

Fig 9

Certosa di San Martino, Naples: choir stalls dating from 1629. Photograph: author

The exclusive use of misericords in Carthusian churches is exemplified by the case of the Savona cathedral choir, which was commissioned as an imitation of the Certosa di Pavia choir in 1500 (fig 10). The surviving contract required that the woodworkers, Anselmo de Fornari and Elia de Rocchi da Pavia, reproduce the ‘wood, beauty, quality, height and conditions’ of the specified Carthusian model.Footnote 53 The finished stalls are indeed almost identical in most respects, including the figural intarsia portraits of apostles, evangelists and other saints, and the distinctive intarsia roundels between semicircular canopies above the stalls. However, the Savona stalls diverged from their stylistic model in one fundamental respect: they lack misericords.Footnote 54 This decisive omission suggests that woodworkers and their patrons recognized the distinction between choirs of different religious orders and adapted their designs appropriately.

Fig 10

Savona Cathedral: choir stalls dating from 1500. Photograph: Fulvio Rosso, Ufficio Beni Culturali Ecclesiastici di Savona

Evidence for this comes from another distinctive feature of Carthusian choirs: they only have one row of stalls, rather than two or three, and they incorporate a forma, or kneeling rest, as required by the liturgical statutes discussed below. In the contract for the Certosa di Maggiano choir, the forma was minutely described, indicating both its significance to the monks and possibly the woodworkers’ lack of familiarity with the structure.Footnote 55 The contract, dated 27 August 1511, commissioned Antonio di Neri Barili and Giovanni di Giovanni to construct an intarsia choir complete with figural images on the stall-backs ‘one figure per picture’.Footnote 56 The forma, or kneeler, was identified as the structure upon which occupants of the stalls could kneel, containing a small cupboard (cassetta) ‘for the use of the Carthusians’.Footnote 57 This document, with its specific instructions, clearly indicates that the Carthusians recognized the individuality of their choir furniture.

Carthusian liturgy

The Carthusian order was founded in 1084, when St Bruno, together with six companions, undertook to live a heremitical life in the Chartreuse mountains.Footnote 58 These first Carthusians were completely isolated, but the order subsequently developed a monastic life combining the ideals of solitude and community. St Bruno did not leave a written rule but the fifth prior, Guigo i, compiled the first customs – known as the Consuetudines Guigonis – around 1127. In 1140, priors declared obedience to the general chapter and the order received exemption from episcopal jurisdiction.

In Italy, the first Carthusian houses were founded in the twelfth century in the north-west region (Casotto in 1171; Pesio in 1173) and the order grew slowly; in contrast to other monastic institutions, it experienced its greatest expansion in the fourteenth century, when twenty-one houses were founded, mainly in central and northern Italy.Footnote 59 The start of the nineteenth through to the mid-twentieth century witnessed a further flowering.Footnote 60

Carthusian communities comprised monks and lay brothers (conversi), who lived in separate accommodation and performed distinct, often menial tasks.Footnote 61 The monks – all of whom were ordained priests – lived in small hermitages disposed around a cloister, which had a private garden and a series of rooms for prayer, study and rest. Maintaining a quasi-heremetical lifestyle, monks would recite divine office in their own cell (equipped with a single stall), while matins, vespers and conventual masses were conducted in the choir.Footnote 62 On Sundays and feast days, however, the entire office was performed in the choir.Footnote 63 Carthusian liturgy was noted for its austerity, solemnity and simplicity, reflecting the unique ideology of the order.Footnote 64

Carthusian liturgical guidelines went through several revisions. Following the first customs of around 1127, the Statuta Antiqua were compiled in 1259; a third edition, the Statuta Nova, was written in 1368; while the Tertia Compilatio was compiled in 1509.Footnote 65 In 1510, Johannes Amorbach printed an edition containing all the statutes to date, illustrated with Urs Graf's woodcuts of the Bruno cycle and Tree of St Bruno, and this was widely distributed across Europe.Footnote 66 As in the ceremonial guidelines for other monastic and mendicant orders, instructions were given for when it was appropriate to stand, kneel and sit during services. However, the Carthusian use also gave strict directions for the use of misericords, confirming that they were specifically associated with their liturgy.Footnote 67 Whereas the Consuetudines Guigonis contained few seating instructions, the first part of the Statuta Antiqua, dedicated to the observation of religious ritual, explicitly cites misericords no less than twelve times.Footnote 68 In the chapter on general customs in church, monks were instructed to lean on the misericords or kneel on the forma when they first entered the choir.Footnote 69 Feast days during which monks were allowed to rest on misericords included Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday and Good Friday.Footnote 70 It seems that monks could lean at more passive sections of the liturgy, such as during prayers and while the priests or deacons were performing ceremonial acts.Footnote 71

Subsequent liturgical publications, including official statutes and books for everyday use during the mass and office, maintained these strict directions. For example, a breviary printed in Venice in 1491 for the monastery of Santi Girolamo e Bernardo, in Padua, contained references to misericords, verifying their use in fifteenth-century Italy.Footnote 72 The much shorter Statuta Nova of 1368 was less concerned with seating positions, but the 1509 Tertia Compilatio returns to guidelines for using misericords.Footnote 73

When, following the Council of Trent, the four main compilations were brought together into one edition – the Nova Collectio Statutorum – the Ordinarium Cartusiense was published first and separately in 1582 with even more detailed instructions for the use of misericords than previous publications. The chapter on the celebration of Divine Office dictated precisely when monks should stand, sit, genuflect or lean upon the misericords. They were obliged to kneel on the forma whilst saying the Pater noster and Ave Maria before the office; during the Gloria patri up to sicut erat; after Deus in auditorium and during the Preces in each office.Footnote 74 However, at certain important festivals, and every day from Easter to Pentecost and during the vigil of Christmas, monks could lean on their misericords instead.Footnote 75 The ceremonial also lists further occasions when the monks could ‘stay leaning on the misericords with covered heads, only the priest standing’;Footnote 76 misericords could also be used during various readings, prayers and hymns, including the Preces and their corresponding prayers in all the offices of the day.Footnote 77 On the other hand, monks were required to stand facing the opposite side of the choir during the singing of canticles, such as the Magnificat, Te Deum and Benedictus, and ‘by no means must we rest upon or cling to our seats, but reverently stand erect’.Footnote 78

Such directions for standing, sitting, kneeling or leaning reflected the solemnity and importance both of the constituent part of the service and of the day in the liturgical calendar. This gestural hierarchy ranged from standing during the canticles to sitting during the readings in Matins.Footnote 79 These (and many other) textual references indicate that the use of misericords was interwoven with Carthusian liturgical practice. Indeed, such complex instructions for the use of misericords sometimes caused confusion amongst Carthusian communities, keen to observe liturgical uniformity. An extended series of liturgical questions from the English Carthusians to the General Chapter, for example, includes one concerning the proper use of misericords on the stalls in monks’ cells.Footnote 80

Services were particularly long in the Carthusian tradition, and the use of misericords might have arisen as a vital measure for alleviating fatigue.Footnote 81 The strict prescription of physical attitudes was also intended to reinforce the monks’ vows of obedience and to enhance the solemnity of their devotion. The prominence of misericords may also reflect the French origins of the order, founded by St Bruno near Grenoble, the location of the Grande Chartreuse, the mother church of the order.Footnote 82 The presence of misericords in French churches generally is attested by numerous other examples,Footnote 83 among them several surviving French Carthusian stalls.Footnote 84

From its foundation, the Carthusian order insisted upon uniformity in liturgical observation, and proposed changes had to be agreed by the General Chapter.Footnote 85 Every monk was expected to keep a copy of the Consuetudines in his cell, reinforcing corporate conformity,Footnote 86 and to study the life of St Bruno, aided by the woodcuts of the St Bruno cycle and Tree of St Bruno in the 1510 Tertia Compilatio.Footnote 87 Since there was a great deal of uniformity too in the design of Carthusian churches and monasteries,Footnote 88 it is not surprising that this should also apply to stall design, accounting for the presence of misericords on Carthusian choir stalls in Italy.

Liturgies of other religious orders

The correct use of misericords was prescribed by Lanfranc's Constitutions (c 1077) and William of Hirsau's Constitutiones Hirsaugienses (c 1077–9), but neither text was originally intended for observance by any particular order.Footnote 89 The official liturgical texts for other monastic, mendicant and secular communities set rules for sitting and standing, but generally made no specific allowance for leaning on misericords except in regional usage. The Cistercian order was the one exception, detailing their usage to a similar extent as the Carthusians. The official compilation of the Ecclesiastica Officia or Liber usum, a liturgical order-book, dates to around 1120–30.Footnote 90 Later reforms to the liturgy saw the addition of feast days, but in essence the Cistercian rite remained intact from then until the seventeenth century.Footnote 91 The Ecclesiastica Officia makes fourteen explicit references to misericords.Footnote 92 During the office of the dead, for instance, monks could ‘lean on the misericords, and say the Our Father in silence’.Footnote 93 Misericords are present in the seventeenth-century stalls in the Cistercian Abbazia di Chiaravalle Milanese,Footnote 94 and the same is true of the early sixteenth-century stalls in the Cistercian monastery of Morimondo, which display intarsia images of saints on the stall-backs and have carved misericords under the swing seats.Footnote 95 Both could be explained, however, by their geographical location in Lombardy, as already discussed. It is therefore possible that misericords also played a part in the design of choir seating in Italian Cistercian churches, but evidence is lacking.

The picture is just as inconclusive for other religious orders. Seating guidelines in the Rule of St Benedict, for example, make no explicit reference to misericords.Footnote 96 Early ceremonials for the Franciscan and Dominican orders give instructions for genuflections and inclinations, but again, do not mention the use of misericords.Footnote 97 Stalls belonging to these communities outside Italy often feature such supports (for example, the Franciscan church in Fribourg in Switzerland has misericords dated to around 1280)Footnote 98 but as we have seen in the case of north-west Italy, their presence is best explained not as a liturgical requirement but influenced by regional-specific morphologies, styles and iconographies, by the practices of specific artists and workshops and even the influence of specific patrons.Footnote 99

Conclusion

Contrary to the prevailing consensus that misericords do not feature in Italy, surviving church furnishings demonstrate that they were indeed present in choirs of the Carthusian order across the country, though rarely as highly decorated as examples north of the Alps. Revealingly, Italian woodworkers produced misericords almost exclusively for Carthusian choirs, on the whole omitting them from the choirs that these same craftsmen built for other religious orders in the same city or region.Footnote 100 Explanations for this absence based on the Italian climate or lack of appropriate materials are inconsistent with this evidence. The decision to renounce misericords in choir seating therefore appears to be conscious and intentional, although an overall explanation for the absence of misericords on Italian stalls cannot be ascertained without further evidence. Italian woodworkers evidently knew how to construct misericords, but they did not fully exploit them as loci of decoration or meaning. Most Italian Carthusian misericords are exceptionally basic in design and construction (those in the Neapolitan Certosa providing a distinctive exception), indicating again that their existence was due to liturgical rather than aesthetic considerations. Whereas the presence of misericords in Piedmont and Valle d'Aosta shows the importance of regional artistic influence on stall design, the Carthusian case introduces a potent liturgical dimension. In Italian Carthusian stalls, the presence of misericords derived both from the rites of the order and from its strict jurisdiction. Despite being small, plain and hidden from view, misericords on Italian Carthusian stalls are not simply a product of stylistic influence or furniture fashion, but of ceremonial considerations and ritual functions that could introduce elements that transcended geographical boundaries.

ABBREVIATIONS AND BIBLIOGRAPHY

Abbreviations
BCT

Biblioteca Comunale di Trento

BL

British Library, London

BMD

Bibliothèque municipale de Dijon

BNF

Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris

Bodleian

Bodleian Library, Oxford

HAB

Herzog August Bibliothek, Wolfenbüttel

NUL

National- und Universitätsbibliothek, Ljubljana

Acknowledgements

This paper is based on a section of my doctoral thesis, ‘Choir stalls in Venice and northern Italy: furniture, ritual and space in the Renaissance church interior’, submitted to the University of Warwick in 2009. An earlier version was presented at the International Medieval Congress in 2009. I am greatly indebted to my supervisor, Dr Donal Cooper, and to the Arts and Humanities Research Council for funding the project. I am also grateful to Dr Julian Luxford and Dr Charles Tracy for reading and commenting on earlier drafts.

Footnotes

1. Grössinger Reference Grössinger1997, 11.

2. English stalls are unique in featuring supporters, additional carvings to either side of the main misericord: see Grössinger Reference Grössinger1997.

3. See Block Reference Block2003.

4. See Block Reference Block2010.

5. The German Rhineland region has more than 300 richly carved narrative misericords, including some fine examples in Cologne Cathedral from the early 14th century: Block Reference Block1996, 3 and 45–91.

6. See Charles Reference Charles1999.

7. Block has surveyed the Gothic misericords in Iberia, present in 2 Portuguese and 14 Spanish churches. They are rich in narrative carvings, displaying over twice as many narrative misericords per ensemble as French stalls: Block Reference Block2004, 1.

8. Grössinger Reference Grössinger1997, 73.

9. Camille Reference Camille1992, 945.

10. Block Reference Block2009, for example.

11. Grössinger commented that ‘misericords existed in most west European countries before the Reformation except in Italy, where the only medieval examples are in Aosta, in the mountainous area of north Italy’, but did not provide any explanations: Grössinger Reference Grössinger1997, 15.

12. Kraus and Kraus Reference Kraus and Kraus1976, 185.

13. For example, a contract for choir stalls in Santa Maria delle Carmine in Padua dated 22 Sept 1383 makes reference to stalls in Sant'Agostino and the Santo in Padua: Sartori Reference Sartori1961, 22–3.

14. See, for example, stalls in the Arena Chapel and the chapel of St James in the Santo, both in Padua.

15. In the volume edited by Giovanni Romano, for example, images of misericords from this region were included but their novelty and rarity were not considered: Romano Reference Romano2002.

16. Damiano Reference Damiano2002, 26, 29.

17. Ibid, 36. The stalls are currently housed in Sant'Ippolito, Bardonecchia, where they were moved in 1828–9.

18. Berton Reference Berton1961, 85–108; La Ferla Reference La Ferla2002, 171.

19. La Ferla Reference La Ferla2002, 226.

20. Ibid, 237.

21. The choir is now in the Museo Civico d'Arte Antica in Turin, with parts in San Vittore, Pollenzo: Gentile Reference Gentile2002, 250–80 and pls 94, 95.

22. An image in the Conway Library of the Courtauld Institute of Art from Sammlung Wv. Dirksen, Berlin, shows stalls with very similar perspective arches decorated with mother-of-pearl, from an auction at Rud: Lepke's Kunst-Auctions-Haus (date not provided), cat no. 40.

23. According to Forcella, in the Abbazia di Chiaravalle, Carlo Garavaglia carved stalls showing the life of St Bernard in 1645: Forcella Reference Forcella1896, 85. The stalls are, however, dated to 1640 in Reggiori Reference Reggiori1970, 23.

24. La Ferla Reference La Ferla2002, 230.

25. I am grateful to Charles Tracy for suggesting this French example: Fligny Reference Fligny1990, 50.

26. According to Piretta, 18 of the panels appear to be by a northern artist, while the remaining 10 are probably by Baldino. An inscription reading MCCCCLXXVII DIE XX/ MENSIS OCTOBRIS HOC/ OPUS FECIT BALDINUS/ DE SURSO PAPIENSIS (‘In 1477 on the 20th day of the month of October, Baldino da Surso of Pavia made this work’) appears on the upper section of the left terminal stall. The stalls are now in the Pinacoteca in Asti: Piretta Reference Piretta2002, 33–6.

27. Tallone Reference Tallone1949, 932.

28. La Ferla Reference La Ferla2002, 174. In Aosta, the stemma appears above the stall depicting St Peter.

29. See Peyronnet Reference Peyronnet1995.

30. Trionfi Honorati (Reference Trionfi Honorati1980, 381), for example, notes that the use of misericords was mentioned in the Carthusian rule, while Chiarelli (Chiarelli and Leoncini Reference Chiarelli and Leoncini1982, 256) mentions that Carthusian choirs were distinctive in several ways: La tipologia del coro certesino presenta alcune peculiarità che le sono proprie: gli stalli separati da alti braccioli che garantiscono ai monaci l'isolamento nella preghiera, le misericordie al di sotto di ogni sedile, e la pedana priva del gradino dell'inginocchiatoio (‘The typology of the Carthusian choir presents some inherent peculiarities: the stalls separated by high armrests, which guarantee monks isolation in prayer, the misericords beneath each seat and the platform lacking a step for kneeling’). However, the majority of Italian choirs feature prominent stall-dividers, and in some Carthusian choirs – for instance in the Certosa di San Martino in Naples – these are relatively unobtrusive.

31. As in the case of the Certosa di Pontignano, now a conference centre attached to the Università degli Studi di Siena (see Certosa di Pontignano 2011) and the Certosa di Capri, now a museum and concert venue (see Certosa di Capri 2011). In other cases, the presence of misericords cannot be ascertained remotely due to the lack of published scholarship or relevant images: I have been unable to confirm the presence of misericords in the Certosa di Vedana, near Belluno, and the Certosa di Garegnano, near Milan.

32. Damiano Reference Damiano2002, 84–92.

33. Scantamburlo Reference Scantamburlo2003, 110, fig 61.

34. Ibid, 98.

35. A document from the Certosa di Calci, dated 12 May 1462, notes the commission of a choir from Jacopo di Marco da Villa Basilica which had to have 36 seats and be bello e bono como quello de monasterio de Firenze in modo che non ve ne sia niuna differentia se non in beleza (‘beautiful and good like that of the monastery in Florence so that there may be no such difference except in beauty’): Scantamburlo Reference Scantamburlo2003, 98.

36. For an image of the choir showing the misericords, see Manghi Reference Manghi1911, fig opp 52.

37. Jacopo was commissioned to construct choirs in San Pietro in Vorno in 1474, San Francesco in Lucca in 1486 and benches for Santa Maria del Giudice, in Lucca, in 1507: Ferri Reference Ferri2001, 146–9.

38. Simone di Domenico Colombini was commissioned in a contract dated 3 Jan 1570, but died later in the same year. The work then passed to the brothers Francesco and Agnolo di Giuliano di Baccio d'Agnolo Baglioni, who worked between 1573 and 1575. After a 14-year interruption, the work was given to Domenico di Bartolomeo Atticciati, who completed the choir in 1590: Chiarelli and Leoncini Reference Chiarelli and Leoncini1982, 256. See also Trionfi Honorati Reference Trionfi Honorati1980, 378.

39. Trionfi Honorati Reference Trionfi Honorati1980, 379; Chiarelli and Leoncini Reference Chiarelli and Leoncini1982, 257.

40. On 28 Apr 1487 an agreement was reached with Bartolomeo de Poli di Modena to construct the choir of the monks and conversi in the Certosa di Pavia, although the contract itself does not survive: Beltrami Reference Beltrami1924, 77.

41. On the north range, a section of the intarsia border next to the misericord on stall 21 has been replaced, suggesting that it is a later addition.

42. Beltrami Reference Beltrami1924, 77–9; Battaglia Reference Battaglia1997, 128–32.

43. The Rodengo stalls are dated c 1480: Lucchesi Ragni et al Reference Lucchesi Ragni, Gianfranceschi and Mondini2003, 25, pl 15. Schottüller suggested that Pantaleone de Marchi could have been associated with the workshop of Agostino de Marchi, who worked on the choir of San Petronio in Bologna between 1467 and 1477: Schottüller Reference Schottüller1915, 8; see also Bandirali Reference Bandirali1965, 61.

44. The fire was started by the troops of Lanzichenecchi del Borbone on the way to the Sack of Rome in 1527. Restored in 1934, this choir later served for the conversi: Raule Reference Raule1961, 58.

45. The stalls now in the main choir of the church do not feature misericords. The first 22 stalls from the west were completed by Biagio de Marchi in 1538, while the remaining 12 were added by Giambattista Natali in 1612: Raule Reference Raule1961, 43–6.

46. In Carthusian churches, the choir of the lay brothers would be situated to the west of the monks’ choir, from which it would be separated by a screen: King Reference King1955, 10. For the monks’ choir, see Cunzo and Martini 1985, 58–60, and Rotili Reference Rotili1972, 170–1.

47. Above the last 3 stalls on the left as one enters the conversi choir is an inscription that reads SI CUPIS OPIFICEM MIRO DECORE JOANNES CONDIDIT IN GALLUS INTUS ET EXTRA CHOROS 1507 (‘If you wish to know, Giovanni Gallo beautifully composed the wonderful work within and without the choirs in 1507’). While the inscription implies that Gallo constructed both choirs, the intarsia panels in each are radically different: Cunzo and Martini 1985, 58; Giudice Reference Giudice2002, 50, pls 14 and 16.

48. Causa Reference Causa1961.

49. In Feb 1539 Jacobo received 50 scuti as a down payment (arra) and it seems that the final payment was made in Mar 1547: Hogg Reference Hogg1991, lii.

50. Tufari and Causa Reference Tufari and Causa1973, 12.

51. St Bruno himself founded this monastery in 1090: Hogg Reference Hogg2008, 44. The church was rebuilt and the monastery revived between 1889 and 1899 following an earthquake of 1783 and subsequent suppression of 1807: Hogg Reference Hogg1977, xiv–xv.

52. The stalls were made by the woodworkers Bribano Egigio Mussoi (1856–1941) and Francesco Frescura (1841–1930). Pellin does not give the exact date of the choir but it must date to the late 19th or early 20th century: Pellin Reference Pellin1951, 48–9.

53. Contract dated 30 Jan 1500: illius lignaminis pulcritudinis qualitatis altitudinis et conditionis quales sunt scanzele constructe et existentes in ecclesia cartusiensi extra civitatem Papie (‘of that same wood, beauty, quality, height and condition as the stalls are constructed that are in the Certosa, outside the city of Pavia’): Fusconi Reference Fusconi1977, 92, 97n. For more on the contract, see Torriti Reference Torriti1952, 185.

54. The absence of misericords on the Savona cathedral choir stalls has been confirmed by Dr Paolo Pacini, the official responsible for ecclesiastical property at the Ufficio Beni Culturali Ecclesiastici di Savona. I am very grateful to Stefania Gerevini for obtaining this information. See also Bartoletti Reference Bartoletti2008.

55. The contract is transcribed in Milanesi Reference Milanesi1856, 52–6.

56. una figura per quadro: ibid, 53.

57. Item: detti maestro Antonio et Giovanni si obrigano affare la forma, o vero appoggiatoio, o vero parapetto di detto coro, dove li stanti in coro quando s'inchinano, con quella altezza et larghezza, et cola cassetta a usanza de'Certosini, di dentro corrispondente a detto coro et sedie, similmente a volontè di detto priore. La qual forma, o appoggiatoio, o parapetto di fuore debba essare similmente a prospectiva, o vero comesso a volontè di detti maestri conducenti (‘Item: the said masters Antonio and Giovanni are required to make the forma, or kneeler, or low wall / parapet of said choir, where those standing in choir genuflect, with that height and width, and with the small cupboard for the use of the Carthusians, on the interior corresponding to that choir and seats, similarly according to the instructions of the said prior. This forma, or kneeler, or parapet on the exterior should be similarly in perspective or rather commesso according to the instructions of the overseers’): ibid, 53.

58. NCE 1967. St Bruno was never formally canonized, but Leo x approved his cult for Carthusian observance in 1514: Luxford Reference Luxford2009, 278.

59. For instance, some of the largest certose date to this period: Padula (1306), Naples (1329), Florence (1341), Pisa (1367) and Pavia (1396): Leoncini Reference Leoncini1989, 232–3.

60. Ibid, 233.

61. Mursell Reference Mursell1988, 203.

62. Gribbin Reference Gribbin1995, 3, 54; Gerhards Reference Gerhards1998, 145; Papàsogli Reference Papàsogli1991, 94.

63. Gerhards Reference Gerhards1998, 145; Giuliani Reference Giuliani2002, 112, 117.

64. Mursell Reference Mursell1988, 170, 176.

65. Hogg Reference Hogg1989–93, i, 4.

66. Luxford Reference Luxford2009, 276–7. Amorbach's edition contained the Consuetudines Guigonis, Statuta Antiqua, Statuta Nova, Tertia Compilatio, an index to the statutes, a repertory of the privileges of the Carthusian order, a summary of the papal privileges, a collection of bulls concerning the Carthusian order and a list of the houses of the order: Hogg Reference Hogg1989–93, i, 1, 4.

67. The Latin guidelines use the term misericordia, as defined by Du Cange: Misericordiae: sellulae erectis formarum subselliis appositae, quibus stantibus senibus vel infirmis per misericordiam insidere conceditur, dum alii stant (‘Misericords: small seats of erect form attached to the seats, on which the aged or infirm by mercy were granted to sit on top, while others stood’): Du Cange Reference Du Cange1954, v, 410.

68. Hogg Reference Hogg1989–93, i, 73, 80, 84, 87, 88, 116, 124, 127, 131.

69. De consuetudinibus in ecclesia … Ingressi vero stamus in sedibus nostris versa facie ad altare: donec ad mis ericordias, vel super formas prout tempus postulat ad orationem inclinemur (‘On customs in church … Having entered, truly, we stand at our seats turned towards the altar, until upon the misericords or on the forma we incline for prayer according as the time demands’): Statuta Antiqua, ch 37: Hogg Reference Hogg1989–93, i, 124.

70. Hogg Reference Hogg1989–93, i, 80, 84, 87.

71. For example during celebrations for the purification of the Virgin Mary: Quando autem benedicuntur tenet eas [candelas] diaconus ad dextrum cornu altaris, ceterique super misericordias inclinantur (‘But when they [the candles] are blessed, the deacon holds them at the right side of the altar, and the others are to lean on the misericords’): Statuta Antiqua, ch 8: Hogg Reference Hogg1989–93, i, 73.

72. sequuntur orationes: quarum dum prime dicuntur stamus versa facie ad altare: ad sedas vero super misericordias inclinamus (‘prayers follow, which are said during prime standing facing the altar: we lean on the seats, indeed, on the misericords’): Breviarium 1491, 13.

73. Infra octavas nativitatis domini, pasche, et pentecostes, dicta oratione ad nocturnum solus sacerdos surgit, remanente conventu super misericordias inclinato (‘In the octave of Christmas, Easter and Pentecost, only the priest rises for the said prayer at night, the remaining community leaning on the misericords’): Tertia Compilatio, ch 1, line 69: Hogg Reference Hogg1989–93, iii, 335.

74. The section entitled Quando genua flectere debemus, vel super sedilia, seu misericordias inclinari (‘When we must genuflect, or lean on the seats or misericords’) states that: Pro quo notandum quod per totum annum flexis genibus, super formas procumbentes, dicimus Pater noster et Ave Maria ante omnes Horas, et Gloria Patri usque ad Sicut erat, post Deus in auditorium, & preces ad omnes Horas, cum suis orationibus (‘With regard to this it should be noted that we say “Our Father” and “Hail Mary” before all the Hours, and the Gloria Patri up to Sicut erat after Deus in auditorium and the preces at all the Hours throughout the whole year whilst on the knees, kneeling on the forma’): Ordinarium, ch 14: Hogg et al Reference Hogg, Girard and Le Blévec1999, i, 49.

75. exceptis diebus occurrentibus a Pascha usque ad octavam Pentecostes inclusive, in quibus praedicta dicimus inclinati super misericordias, seu sedes nostras; sicut et alio Tempore, quibuscumque diebus duodecim Lectionum, incipiendo a primis Vesperis inclusive usque ad Completorium sequentis diei inclusive; omnibus diebus a Vigilia Natalis Domini, incipiendo a Laudibus ejus inclusive, usque ad Completorium Octavarum Epiphaniae inclusive; et per totas Octavas Corporis Domini, Visitationis, Assumptionis, Nativitatis et Immaculatae Conceptionis Genitricis Dei, Sancti Ioannis Baptistae, SS. Apostolorum Petri et Pauli et sancti Patris nostri Brunonis, incipiendo a primis Vesperis dictarum solennitatum inclusive usque ad Completorium Octavarum inclusive. (‘With the exception of the days from Easter up to the octave of Pentecost inclusive, in which we say the aforementioned leaning on the misericords, or on our seats: as well as at other times on any days with twelve readings, starting from the first vespers inclusive up to compline of the following day inclusive and all the days from the vigil of Christmas, starting from Lauds inclusive, up to the compline of the octave of Epiphany inclusive, and for the whole octave of Corpus Domini, the Visitation, Assumption and Nativity of the Mother of God, St John the Baptist, Sts Peter and Paul the Apostles, and St Bruno our Father, starting from the first vespers of the said solemnities inclusive up to compline of the octave inclusive’): Ordinarium, ch 14: Hogg et al Reference Hogg, Girard and Le Blévec1999, i, 49.

76. Verumtamen, Dominicis diebus, quando dicitur Deus in adjutorium ad Tertiam, post aquae Benedictionem, et infra Octavas Paschae, Pentecostes et Natalis Domini, quando tres lectiones in Matutinis tantum dicuntur, dum dicitur Deus in adjutorium, ante Laudes, manemus super misericordias inclinati capitibus coopertis, solo Sacerdote stante, dum cantat Deus in adjutorium (‘However, on Sundays, when Deus in adjutorium is said at Terce, after the water of Benediction, and in the octave of Easter, Pentecost and Christmas, when only three lessons in Matins are said, when Deus in adjutorium is said, before Lauds, we remain leaning on the misericords with heads covered, only the priest standing, while he sings Deus in adjutorium’): Ordinarium, ch 14: Hogg et al Reference Hogg, Girard and Le Blévec1999, i, 51.

77. Ad Pater noster ante singulas Horas, et Gloria Patri post Deus in adjutorium, et ad omnes omnium Horarum preces cum suis orationibus, super misericordias inclinamur, nisi quando flectere genua debemus, sicut supra dictum est (‘At the “Our Father” before every Hour, and the Gloria Patri after Deus in adjutorium, and at all the preces at all the Hours with their prayers, we lean on the misericords, except when we must genuflect, as stated above’): Ordinarium, 14: Hogg et al Reference Hogg, Girard and Le Blévec1999, i, 59.

78. quando cantamus Magnificat, Te Deum laudamus, Benedictus … nullo modo debemus inniti vel adhaerere sedibus nostris, sed erecti ac reverenter stare (‘when we sing Magnificat, Te Deum laudamus, Benedictus … by no means must we rest upon or cling to our seats, but reverently stand erect’): Ordinarium, ch 14: Hogg et al Reference Hogg, Girard and Le Blévec1999, i, 52.

79. Item, simul omnes sedemus in Matutinis, quando cantantur Lectiones et Responsoria earum usque ad Gloria Patri, si dicatur, vel usque ad repetitionem Responsorii quando, loco Gloria Patri, repetitur. (‘Likewise, all sit together in Matins and when the readings and their responses up to the Gloria Patri, are said; or up to the repetition of the Responses when, in place of the Gloria Patri, it is repeated’): Ordinarium, ch 14: Hogg et al Reference Hogg, Girard and Le Blévec1999, i, 57.

80. Numquid quando in cellis super misericordias preces soli dicimus debeamus stando vel super misericordias dicere oraciones? Responsio: ad matutinas et vesperas stando ad alias horas ad misericordias vel venias secundum exigenciam temporis (‘When in the cells, do we only say the preces on the misericords? Should we stand or lean on the misericords to say the prayers? Response: at Matins and Vespers standing, at other hours on the misericords or you may follow the requirements of the time’). Variations of this question appear in three English manuscripts (Bodleian, Rawl. D. 318; Gonville and Caius, Cambridge, ms 732/771; BL, Cotton Cal A ii) containing texts ranging from the mid-14th to the early 16th centuries: Gribbin Reference Gribbin1995, 8, 19, 65n.

81. King Reference King1955, 33. In Guido's Consuetudines the method of psalm recitation was described as ‘without excessive haste’: Mursell Reference Mursell1988, 218.

82. King Reference King1955, 18. The Grande Chartreuse was completely destroyed by the Huguenots in 1562 and was subsequently rebuilt by Innocent Le Masson in 1676 following a fire: NCE 1967, 163.

83. Block surveyed stalls from the 13th to the 16th centuries in 217 churches and 3 museums in France, photographing 3,287 misericords in total: Block Reference Block2003, 3.

84. For example, stalls in Hospice (ancienne chartreuse) Saint-Sauveur, Villefranche-de-Rouergue; stalls from Chartreuse de Correrie, on loan to the Musée de la Correrie, Grande Chartreuse; stalls in ancienne chapelle de la chartreuse, Sainte-Croix-en-Jarez: Block Reference Block2003, 28, 80, 96.

85. Gribbin Reference Gribbin1995, 5.

86. Mursell Reference Mursell1988, 66.

87. Luxford Reference Luxford2009, 276–7. Luxford has also revealed, however, the lack of a distinctive Carthusian style or iconography in late medieval manuscript illustration: Luxford Reference Luxford2008.

88. This is especially true of Carthusian cloisters with their accompanying small hermitages: Giusti Reference Giusti1988, 27.

89. Lanfranc's Constitutions state: dum dicitur Pater noster ante lectionem sedebunt super parua sedilia et dum dicitur oratio pro legente (‘while the “Our Father” is said before the reading we sit on the misericords and while a prayer is said for the reader’). The phrase parua sedilia was translated by Knowles and Brooke as ‘misericords’. Lanfranc's text was not conceived for a wide audience but it was available for use by other houses: Knowles Reference Knowles2002, xxx, 204; this early text was noted in Barton Reference Barton2009, 141–2. Super misericordiam sedilis sui, si opus habet, quiescit (‘One rests on the misericords of one's seat, if required’): William of Hirsau, Constitutiones Hirsaugienses, quoted in Niermeyer Reference Niermeyer1997, 693. After writing the text, William founded 7 new monasteries under the same principles of reform: Cyprian Alston Reference Cyprian Alston1913. Around 100 abbeys in Swabia, Franconia and Alsace adopted the Hirschau reforms: Gerhards Reference Gerhards1998, 299.

90. Lackner Reference Lackner1971, 24–5.

91. King Reference King1955, 72.

92. Herzog and Miller Reference Herzog and Miller2003, 176, 182, 216, 218, 222, 240, 248, 252, 254, 284, 300, 312, 408. This edition of the text has been compiled from several manuscripts: BMD, ms 114; BCT, ms 1711; NUL, ms 31; BNF, ms 4346; HAB, Codex Guelferbytanus 1068. The dating of the manuscripts varies from the Ljubljana ms 31 (1147–52) to the Wolfenbüttel codex from the first quarter of the 13th century: Herzog and Miller Reference Herzog and Miller2003, 7–8.

93. reclinent se super misericordias et dicant Pater noster sub silentio (‘they may lean back on the misericords and say the “Our Father” in silence’): Ecclesiastica Officia, ch 50, line 18: Herzog and Miller Reference Herzog and Miller2003, 176.

94. See n 23 above.

95. Two inscriptions on the stalls state that the choir was completed in 1522 by Francesco Giramo di Abbiategrasso: Calliari Reference Calliari1981, 96–7.

96. For Benedictine liturgy, see Linderbauer Reference Linderbauer1928.

97. For the Franciscan ceremonial of Haymo of Faversham (before 1244, published 1247–51), see Van Dijk Reference Van Dijk1963, ii, 333–58. For the Constitutiones of the Order of Preachers (1358–63), see Galbraith Reference Galbraith1925, 203–53.

98. Ganz and Seeger Reference Ganz and Seeger1946, 99.

99. The choir stalls of Palermo Cathedral in Sicily unusually feature misericords, but their presence can be attributed to the patron of the choir, Archbishop Nicolò Pujades, from Barcelona. He commissioned the choir in 1466 in a Catalan style and possibly from Catalan craftsmen, probably requesting the comfort aids he was accustomed to in Barcelona. The misericords in Barcelona Cathedral date to 1394–9: Bellafiore Reference Bellafiore1976, 108; Block Reference Block2004, 17.

100. Occasional examples of misericords in non-Carthusian churches include those in Naples Cathedral and San Pietro in Castello, in Venice.

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Fig 1 Santa Maria della Passione, Milan: sixteenth-century choir stalls. Photograph: author

Figure 1

Fig 2 Certosa del Galluzzo, Florence: mid-fifteenth-century choir stalls. Photograph: author

Figure 2

Fig 3 Certosa di Calci, Pisa: choir stalls of c 1462. Photograph: author

Figure 3

Fig 4 Certosa del Galluzzo, Florence: choir stalls dating between 1570 and 1590. Photograph: author

Figure 4

Fig 5 Certosa di Pavia: choir stalls dating from 1487. Photograph: author

Figure 5

Fig 6 Certosa di Bologna: late fifteenth-century choir stalls in the chapel of San Giuseppe. Photograph: author

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Fig 7 Certosa di Padula: choir stalls of c 1507. Photograph: Conway Library, The Courtauld Institute of Art, London

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Fig 8 Certosa di San Martino, Naples: choir stalls dating between 1510 and 1524. Photograph: author

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Fig 9 Certosa di San Martino, Naples: choir stalls dating from 1629. Photograph: author

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Fig 10 Savona Cathedral: choir stalls dating from 1500. Photograph: Fulvio Rosso, Ufficio Beni Culturali Ecclesiastici di Savona